Black Swan Quotes

• No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion.

  David Hume

  Swans, White, Black

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• Perfection is not just about control, it is also about letting go.

  Vincent Cassel

  Letting Go, Perfection, Good Advice

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• A rare bird upon the earth and very much like a black swan.

  Juvenal

  Swans, Bird, Black

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• The only person standing in your way is you.

  Vincent Cassel

  Way, Persons, Standing

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• A rare bird on this earth, like nothing so much as a black swan.

  Juvenal

  Swans, Bird, Black

  'Satires' no. 6, l. 165

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• Remember that you are a Black Swan.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Swans, Black, Remember

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• The central idea in The Black Swan is that: rare events cannot be estimated from empirical observation since they are rare.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Swans, Ideas, Rare Events

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• Technical things are getting more mechanical. Take 'Swan Lake,' the Black Swan pas de deux. Now, my goodness, they're turning not just 32 fouettes - but double or triple pirouettes.

  Natalia Makarova

  Lakes, Swans, Black

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• Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Running, Ideas, Missing

  "This column will change your life: do you own gadgets - or do they own you?" by Oliver Burkeman, www.theguardian.com. February 9, 2013.

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• Ideas come and go, stories stay.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Ideas, Stories, Comes And Goes

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.31, Random House

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• In economic life and history more generally, just about everything of consequence comes from black swans; ordinary events have paltry effects in the long term.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Swans, Long, Black

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• So the world is much more correlated than we give credit to. And so we see more of what Nassim Taleb calls "black swan events" - rare events happen more often than they should because the world is more correlated.

  Richard Thaler

  Swans, Rare Events, Giving

  Source: bigthink.com

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• With 'Black Swan,' the ballerina saga flips its tiara and goes on a hallucinatory bender, a scary acid trip where transfiguration and disfiguration meet.

  James Wolcott

  Swans, Scary, Black

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• People who think they know what is going to happen next are fools. Surprises - or what the brilliant author Nassim Taleb calls 'Black Swans' - are inevitable. Some are likely to be desperately unpleasant too

  Martin Wolf

  Ignorance, Thinking, Swans

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• Everything will be better in the morning.  It always is.

  Barbara Hershey

  Morning

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• I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or "incentives" for skill.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Errors, Skills, People

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.25, Random House

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• I have this really morbid, awesome love for the movie Black Swan.

  Sherri Saum

  Swans, Black, Morbid

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• Last year when "Black Swan," "True Grit" and "King's Speech" all grossed over $100 million, it gave studios and independent financiers the confidence to make daring movies. You know, and not do the same old you-know-what.

  Harvey Weinstein

  Kings, Independent, Swans

  "Harvey Weinstein On Hollywood's Heated Oscar Race". "Morning Edition" with Renee Montagne, www.npr.org. December 2, 2011.

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• Slashing its way to the finish line, Black Swan is the first ballet movie for highbrow horror fans for whom ballet itself signifies little to nothing. Those of us who know and love ballet can only look on it with a different kind of horror.

  James Wolcott

  Swans, Ballet, Black

  "Swan Down: James Wolcott's Review". "Opera Chic" blog, December 06, 2010.

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